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Hummingbird
Three people, strangers all, are thrown together in a world of sand and ocean and sky on Northland's Ninety Mile Beach. Jordan--a tattooed man who lives alone at the base of his ancestral hill in a boat that was never launched--has his solitude broken by the arrival of two travellers: one who falls from the air, another who arrives following childhood memories. Kingi, a distinguished Battle of Britain veteran, is journeying to keep a promise made on Crete half a century ago. Kataraina, a former prostitute, has left Sydney's Kings Cross and is finally travelling home. But their journeys and their lives change forever with the arrival of a young woman and her daughter.
360 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 24, 2015
The best novel I've read in a long long time. I think it has become my top Kiwi novel. Before now my favourite was The Bone People, which won the Booker prize. Hummingbird ought also to have won it IMO.
The setting was wild and free, beside Ninety Mile Beach in the far north of this country. A place of few people and endless seascapes.
Wild and free?
Freedom was a theme of the story to me, freedom and captivity. The characters were there to seek the freedom they had lost elsewhere in their lives, yet some also rediscovered the TIES they had lost. Sometimes they found freedom by losing it. By the end, I was so glad that Jordan lived here among endless unpopulated space, swimming and surfing in his beautiful dangerous ocean.
A handful of characters, intensely drawn on a gradient from the most innocent baby to the most world-weary war-torn human killing machine. This last was a man who had killed hundreds coldly from the air and shot a woman face to face in the heat of the moment and was also a person of gigantic intellect, compassion and wisdom. How could all that be collected into one character who still remains credible ? It was superbly done. These three main characters will live on within me. I feel I know them well.
There are vivid scenes from the Battle of Britain, from the war-prisons of Germany and the horrific bombing of German cities, juxtaposed with surfing and creativity and blossoming love beside a clean ocean on the opposite side of the world.
I was stunned to think of the research that must have gone into those WW2 scenes.
One world where everything was being torn apart and people died for NO reason and another world where everything was coming together at last and death was for GOOD reason. But we saw how hells of human making can happen in New Zealand as easily as they can happen anywhere else in the world. Our isolation is no real protection from ourselves, but nature is a healer, (and a killer) all the same.
The setting was wild and free, beside Ninety Mile Beach in the far north of this country. A place of few people and endless seascapes.
Wild and free?
Freedom was a theme of the story to me, freedom and captivity. The characters were there to seek the freedom they had lost elsewhere in their lives, yet some also rediscovered the TIES they had lost. Sometimes they found freedom by losing it. By the end, I was so glad that Jordan lived here among endless unpopulated space, swimming and surfing in his beautiful dangerous ocean.
A handful of characters, intensely drawn on a gradient from the most innocent baby to the most world-weary war-torn human killing machine. This last was a man who had killed hundreds coldly from the air and shot a woman face to face in the heat of the moment and was also a person of gigantic intellect, compassion and wisdom. How could all that be collected into one character who still remains credible ? It was superbly done. These three main characters will live on within me. I feel I know them well.
There are vivid scenes from the Battle of Britain, from the war-prisons of Germany and the horrific bombing of German cities, juxtaposed with surfing and creativity and blossoming love beside a clean ocean on the opposite side of the world.
I was stunned to think of the research that must have gone into those WW2 scenes.
One world where everything was being torn apart and people died for NO reason and another world where everything was coming together at last and death was for GOOD reason. But we saw how hells of human making can happen in New Zealand as easily as they can happen anywhere else in the world. Our isolation is no real protection from ourselves, but nature is a healer, (and a killer) all the same.
November 14, 2013
I was captivated by this novel from the first page. This is the story of three, then five, people thrown together by chance and circumstance. George allows the reader time to get to know each character and their place in the story. Each one has a story to tell, some of it very difficult but very real. Their stories range from flying spitfires during the Battle of Britain in 1940 to trying to avoid becoming another Mongrel gang statistic in New Zealand, to giving up a child for a adoption.
The setting is superbly realised and I can feel the sand of the northern beaches under my feet and hear the sound of the wild northern seas through the marram grass and the sound of the seabirds. The small seaside camping ground with its cabins and kitchen block brought memories of my childhood flooding back as it is so quintessentially New Zealand.
These people are real, their stories are true and I could not put the book down. The style of writing is also interesting as George plays with structure moving from first person to third person narration, but always in the present tense. And eventually I understood the relevance of the title.
I cannot recommend this novel highly enough. It is on a par with his other novel, Oceans road.
The setting is superbly realised and I can feel the sand of the northern beaches under my feet and hear the sound of the wild northern seas through the marram grass and the sound of the seabirds. The small seaside camping ground with its cabins and kitchen block brought memories of my childhood flooding back as it is so quintessentially New Zealand.
These people are real, their stories are true and I could not put the book down. The style of writing is also interesting as George plays with structure moving from first person to third person narration, but always in the present tense. And eventually I understood the relevance of the title.
I cannot recommend this novel highly enough. It is on a par with his other novel, Oceans road.
July 19, 2015
A young woman goes to stay at an abandoned holiday camp near a beach on an isolated cost in New Zealand wanting some time out. she soon found that she was not as alone as she had expected.
The book reveals each person's story and why they have ended up sharing the beach and their past and formed new reationships as the book progressed.
The book creates an atmosphere of uiet seclusion, thereby reflecting the mood expressed by each of the characters. If you are looking for a quiet thoughtful read, flavoured by the New Zealand setting the characters grew up in and were affected by, this is the book for you.
The book reveals each person's story and why they have ended up sharing the beach and their past and formed new reationships as the book progressed.
The book creates an atmosphere of uiet seclusion, thereby reflecting the mood expressed by each of the characters. If you are looking for a quiet thoughtful read, flavoured by the New Zealand setting the characters grew up in and were affected by, this is the book for you.
November 15, 2015
This was an at times brilliant and original piece of literature. In many respects the plot was secondary to the main characters' emotional journeys. The author was able to convey their inner-most thoughts and give us, the readers, a sense of their inner sadness, fear, honour and identity through poetic description and minimalist dialogue.
There were certain points in the novel where I thought the narrative became overly sentimental to the point where it took me out of the flow of the book. Overall, though, the author successfully weaves the line between vivid imagery and melodrama to leave this reader wanting more.
There were certain points in the novel where I thought the narrative became overly sentimental to the point where it took me out of the flow of the book. Overall, though, the author successfully weaves the line between vivid imagery and melodrama to leave this reader wanting more.
February 6, 2017
I'm torn about whether to recommend this novel or not. It is beautifully written which is why I devoured it in a day. The story is unique and uplifting (which I find rare in many NZ novels). The characters fell a little short for me though. I was left wanting more of their stories as it ended abruptly....other than Kingi (though his story was not believable to me) who finished perfectly. Giving it a three as simply can't decide.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews